Açaí Bowls with Maple Quinoa Granola

Get your day started with the powerful superfoods in these Açaí Bowls with Maple Quinoa Granola! Berry and banana smoothie bowls are topped with easy homemade granola, fresh fruit and almond butter. Naturally gluten free and vegan.

I’ve been sharing a little bit about about my husband and I’s recent 10th anniversary trip to Maui on my Instagram account. It was an amazing trip, with lots of relaxation, snorkeling, golf (for him), shave ice (for me), driving around the island and beach hopping. We also tried açaí bowls for the first time, and fell in love with them.

An açaí bowl is basically just a smoothie in a bowl, topped with stuff. The smoothie should, of course, contain açaí berries (usually in a dried powder form blended into the smoothie). Açaí is a South American fruit that is considered a superfood thanks to it’s crazy amount of antioxidants and other nutritional benefits.

Toppings for açaí bowls usually consist of lots of fresh fruit, granola, cacao nibs, almond butter, seeds and nuts, and honey. And today, my homemade açaí bowls are being topped with Maple Quinoa Granola, for even more superfood power!

About this Maple Quinoa Granola:

You’ll want to use pre-rinsed, uncooked quinoa for this granola. Quinoa needs to be rinsed before cooking and eating, because the outside of quinoa seeds are coated in a substance called saponin, which can taste bitter or soapy. Not all brands of quinoa at the grocery store are pre-rinsed, but Bob’s Red Mill Organic Tricolor Quinoa definitely is, making it perfect for this recipe!

The Tricolor Quinoa is a blend of white, red and black quinoa, so it’s as beautiful to look at as it is wonderful for your health. It’s 100% whole grain, and packed with iron, fiber, and protein, making it a powerful way to start your day.

I used macadamia nuts in my granola for a Hawaiian feel, but any nut you like is perfect here.

Açaí Bowls with Maple Quinoa Granola

Get your day started with the powerful superfoods in these Açaí Bowls with Maple Quinoa Granola! Berry and banana smoothie bowls are topped with easy homemade granola, fresh fruit and almond butter. Naturally gluten free and vegan.

Notes

Home Chef Tip: If your coconut oil is already liquid at room temperature, you can skip heating it on the stove in Step #2 and simply stir the oil, maple syrup, cinnamon and salt together in a small bowl before pouring over the oat mixture.

Disclosure: This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of Bob’s Red Mill. Sponsored posts help me pay for the costs associated with this blog (groceries…lots of groceries), and help support me as I pursue a career in recipe development and food photography. All opinions are 100% my own.

We were introduced to açai bowls in Belem, Brazil, which is where the berries come from (they are the fruit of a type of palm tree). We’ve been making them ever since, using Sambazon frozen açai berry puree. The ones I make start with a base of 12 oz. milk, juice of half a lemon, 2 scoops of protein powder, 2 packets of açai puree, and about a cup each of frozen papaya, mango, and strawberries. All topped with granola. This serves 2. In my experience the frozen puree is way cheaper than the açai powder. You can get the froze puree at health food stores, some regular grocery stores, and even Costco. I like the idea of your granola, and will have to try your version of açai bowls, even though I do my best to avoid bananas in smoothies (I don’t digest ripe bananas well).

I imagine that acai bowls in Brazil are the best there is! Thanks for the tip about the frozen puree. I’m not a Costco member, but I’ll check some health food stores around here (although, even the powder, I had to order on Amazon because I didn’t find it locally). Must be the Midwest just hasn’t caught on to acai yet.

Oh, thank you! Yes, definitely unsweetened is what I would always prefer. I know what you mean about the 45-minute drive each way. I live in an urban area, BUT there aren’t any of those “big box” stores near me (which I’m OK with). If I do need to go to one, it’s a pretty long round trip.

Hi Lori, I made these for breakfast today, and really enjoyed them (my husband felt a need to add a little sugar to his because the berries were slightly tart). I have a question about the granola, though. I made it some time ago and it was unbelievably wet and took forever to bake to sort of dry. You use more liquid for this small batch than I use for 4x the oats/3x the nuts. I ended up turning the oven up to 250º and baked it for several hours. Was yours that wet when you made it? It goes absolutely wonderfully with your açai bowls, and I like it well enough to make it again, but I would probably increase the dry by 3 times to make it come out more as I expect it to. Any thoughts?

Hi Susan – thanks so much for trying these bowls out! I agree with you that the granola could use some tweaks. I tested it twice, and one time it came out pretty dry, and the other, slightly wet. I used a different sheet pan each time (one was darker and one was lighter), and that somehow made a difference. I have plans to test this again this week, and get the ratio of wet to dry correct. I think you’re right – it’s just too much liquid.

Lori, the recipe I most frequently make has 5 cups oats, 1 cup almonds, plus 1.5 cups of other things (pepitas, coconut, dried cherries) and only ¼ cup each of oil and sweetener. I think it could use a little more liquid than it has, but that is why I mentioned the kind of proportions I did for yours. I’ll be interested to know what you come up with from your tests.

Hi Susan! I tested this recipe again with adjusted amounts, and it came out nice and dry (but not too dry) and crunchy this time. I upped the dry ingredients, lowered the wet ones and increased the oven temp. It came out great with an hour of baking time.

Thank you again for testing this recipe (I’m sorry it was kind of a flop the first time) and helping me improve it. I really appreciate it. Have a great week!

Thanks, Lori! I will try it with the new proportions and directions. I really liked the flavor of it, and it goes absolutely perfectly with your açai bowl recipe and mine. Glad I could help out. Your recipes are always worth trying.

Fun Facts: 1) Before we went to Hawaii I didn’t know what açaí was. Didn’t know it was purple. Had no idea it was like a smoothie. 2) I was scared to try it, as well, because I am generally weirded out by vegan food. Which is strange because I like fruit, smoothies, nut butters, etc.

I am SO happy that we went and Lori made me try it. It was very tasty. And I’d be happy to have it again for breakfast any time.

Hi, I’m Lori! I’m a Detroit-area culinary school graduate, food photographer, recipe developer and english muffin fanatic. This blog is where I post simple, yet special, original recipes for the "home chef" in all of us.